Discount tickets for REV Madrid to Seville

smileymadd · Feb 23, 2013

I have read on the forum that discount tickets can be bought for the REV train from Madrid to Seville if you buy far enough in advance. I have been searching for tickets for Saturday 27th April, making it 63 days from today now but have had no joy. I looked at the RENFE site, TGV europe, Rail Europe but they all seem to be around 75-90 euro, would this be considered discount or have I missed my moment?

Sue.

smileymadd · Feb 23, 2013

Oops, I meant the AVE train.

Sue.

jirit · Feb 23, 2013

smileymadd said:
I have read on the forum that discount tickets can be bought for the REV train from Madrid to Seville if you buy far enough in advance. I have been searching for tickets for Saturday 27th April, making it 63 days from today now but have had no joy. I looked at the RENFE site, TGV europe, Rail Europe but they all seem to be around 75-90 euro, would this be considered discount or have I missed my moment?

Sue.

Hi Sue

Almost impossible to book tickets from the Renfe site from Australia. The other best option is TVG Europe but you correct - the price is about 75 euro. Forget about Rail Europe - they are the most expensive.

However cheapest tickets can be found here

http://petrabax.com/

I saw some for under 50 dollars USD

Trick for you is finding a friend in the states that can purchase the tickets for you.

Alan Pearce · Feb 23, 2013

Unlike in previous years, there were no discount tickets available last year when I looked at the renfe website. I have travelled from SdC to Madrid at the end of each of my caminos and last year was the first time that discounts were not available if you purchased in the few days after they first came on sale.

I have a friend in SdC who buys the tickets for me and emails them to me. I pay him back at the end of my walks. I find the overnight trip to Madrid a soothing end to my camino [ but anyone over 170 cm tall will find the bunks a little short]. And yes, Rail Europe do charge a commission fee for the tickets but this fee is much less than it was some years ago.

Alan

Be brave. Life is joyous.

smileymadd · Feb 24, 2013

Thank you very much jirit and Alan for your advice. I do have friends in the US and will certainly look at the petrabax website. If I do have to pay full price for my train trip so be it.

I have managed to book a wonderful inexpensive hostel in Seville and a discounted internal flight at the end of my camino by booking far enough in advance, so I am very happy.

Thank you both again.

Sue.

Donovan · Feb 24, 2013

Sue, I bought a Madrid/Seville ticket this time last year through http://www.tgv-europe.com for 53 Euros. They posted the ticket to me in Melbourne. The ticket was non-refundable and non transferable. From memory these discount tickets went on sale 60 days ahead of departure, so maybe they weren’t yet available when you tried for 27 April.
Donovan

Donovan · Feb 24, 2013

Whoops – I just read the fine print. They will refund, prior to departure only, and with a 30% fee. You can’t change to an earlier train – I tried.

peregrina2000 · Feb 24, 2013

Hi, Sue,
I see plenty of discount tickets on the AVE to Sevilla from Madrid on April 27. When you go to the RENFE website, click on "buy tickets'." If you're just searching for times, they won't bring up prices and availability. The cheapest ticket I see is a pretty unbelievable 22 euros!

For me the hard part isn't finding the cheap fares on RENFE, it's figuring out how to actually buy the ticket from them. I've given up on that, as I think most people in the US have, though I was successful one year.

But I think that the petrabax site gives you the best fares outside of RENFE. Their booking fees are much lower than other places, in my experience. Their website shows $38 for the cheapest ticket and that price shown includes booking fee.

Jirit-- on another post, when you mentioned the issue about having to be in the US to buy from petrabax, I called them and they said they sell to people all over. Have you found that not to be the case? They assured me there was no such requirement.

Buen camino everyone, Laurie

hotelmedicis · Feb 24, 2013

Check out this website for buying tickets in Spain and alternatives to the RENFE site that actually work:

http://www.seat61.com/Spain-trains.htm

Also I strongly recommend taking a bus from Madrid to Seville. It costs about €22, takes 6 hours and they even have overnight services which are fantastic. They leave from the Southern Bus Station in Madrid. I think the bus company is Socibus. More info here:

http://gospain.about.com/od/inaroundmad ... eville.htm

jirit · Feb 24, 2013

peregrina2000 said:
Hi, Sue,
I see plenty of discount tickets on the AVE to Sevilla from Madrid on April 27. When you go to the RENFE website, click on "buy tickets'." If you're just searching for times, they won't bring up prices and availability. The cheapest ticket I see is a pretty unbelievable 22 euros!

For me the hard part isn't finding the cheap fares on RENFE, it's figuring out how to actually buy the ticket from them. I've given up on that, as I think most people in the US have, though I was successful one year.

But I think that the petrabax site gives you the best fares outside of RENFE. Their booking fees are much lower than other places, in my experience. Their website shows $38 for the cheapest ticket and that price shown includes booking fee.

Jirit-- on another post, when you mentioned the issue about having to be in the US to buy from petrabax, I called them and they said they sell to people all over. Have you found that not to be the case? They assured me there was no such requirement.

Buen camino everyone, Laurie

Hi Laurie

I stand corrected. I read somewhere I believe on their site when registering that they only accepted USA or Canadian users. But I just read over seat61's information and he indicates that the site works in a number of locations including Australia. I would suggest Sue you give Petrabax a try then if you decide you want to go by train to Seville.

Luka · Feb 24, 2013

Hi Sue, I bought my ticket Madrid - Sevilla 11 days ago for Friday the 26th for 37.75 euro. One train earlier was 30 euro, but I am not sure if I would have made it in time from the airport then. When are you starting to walk? We might run into each other in Sevilla or somewhere on the way!

smileymadd · Feb 25, 2013

Thank you so much everyone for your help. I've just this moment booked my tickets (my sister-in-law and myself) on the petrabax website for 55 euro. I am sure I could have done better but I am more than happy with this price.

In 2011 we took the train from Barcelona to Pamplona when we walked the Frances, Spanish trains, what a luxury, they are clean. We sat with our mouths open when the train departed spot on time. Here in Melbourne it is rare for a train to arrive or depart on time, they are regularly cancelled and never clean. We are so looking forward to another train adventure in Spain.
We have given ourselves four hours from the time our flight arrives in Madrid to the train leaving, I've read this is enough time, of course we are praying our plan arrives on time.

We will spend a couple of days in Seville where I have been before but my sister-in-law has not and we start to walk 30th April (we certainly may bump into each other Luca). We have only about six weeks to walk due to our work commitments back home, we are quite slow walkers so I think we may need to take a bus at some stage, perhaps where there is some highway walking just to make sure we arrive in Santiago on time.

From everything I have read about the Via we are certainly in for quite a different camino to the Frances. We feel blessed that we are financially and physcially able to walk another camino.

Thank you again everyone.

Sue